Author's Note: Hey guys I'm sorry for the wait this story has been a real bear to deal with. This run a little longer than I expected so I hope you guys like it. Enjoy
New Adventure Academy
Chapter 2
"Good morning class, my name is Snapper Carr I will be your instructor on Introduction to Superheroics 101. Now before we get started I want to get to know everyone in this class. Let's start off with this, how many of you guys have superpowers?" he asked looking up from his horn rimmed glasses as a majority of students raised their hand.
"All right let's start with you in the black shirt. What are your powers?" he asked gesturing to the Boy of Steel as he stood up.
"My name is Conner Kent, I'm known as Superboy. My powers include flight, superhuman strength, endurance and heat vision." He said introducing himself in short order as Professor Carr nodded and removed his glasses.
"Those are all the classic abilities of Superman, good." He said before gesturing over to a blonde female student.
"My name is Artemis Crock, I like to call myself Artemis. Um, I don't really have any superpowers but I'm training to become Green Arrow's sidekick and highly skilled in archery and the use of Trick Arrows having been trained by my mother and Arrow." She stated as the teacher cocked his head to the side.
"All right, you remember that I was talking to those with powers. But it's cool, its how we get to know each other. Next." He said pointing to the woman next to her as a girl with green skin and red hair stood up.
"My name is M'gann M'orzz, I just arrived on Earth, I'm the niece to League member Martian Manhunter and my abilities include shape changing, I'm able to stretch any part of my body as much as I want, make myself invisible and can read minds just like my uncle." She smiled and sat back down.
"I didn't catch your codename dear." He told her.
"Oh its Miss Martian sir." She smiled while Conner and Artemis looked on catching the young Martian's eye. Conner smiled softly as she grinned and brushed back a lock of her auburn hair.
"Very good." He said before pointing down to the front row.
"The name's Robin, I don't really have any powers either. I think most of you guys know that. I'm trained extensively in martial arts, stealth, computer hacking, detective work and bojutsu." Tim said summing up his general abilities as the professor's eyes fall on Bucky and the boy solider stood up.
"Um, My name is Bucky Barnes I'm Captain America's sidekick. I'm mostly trained in hand to hand combat as well as stealth and infiltration." Bucky said summing up his skills as brief as possible and sat down before moving onto the next student.
"My name is Ken Mack, most people call me Mettle. I have Iridium skin as well as superhuman strength and endurance, immune to most toxins and damn near invincible." Another student sitting across from them said.
"Plus I have a skull for a face." he added making Bucky's stomach turn, as he did the same and saw a monstrous male student with a scarlet metallic shell wearing a black t-shirt and jeans and a noticeable gap between his teeth and jaws as Bucky sat in shock.
"Was this the Red Skull's son?" He thought to himself as Mettle sat on the far end averting his eyes from anyone else while Bucky was now seething in anger.
"How dare he. How dare that monster bring another one like him into the world." the boy soldier thought to himself and was leaning halfway over the desk clutching his fist as he breathed through his teeth glaring at the man before him.
"Hey Bucky are you feeling all right?" Robin asked sitting next to him. The boy solider narrowed his eyes behind his mask.
"I'm fine." he muttered. Other students would introduce themselves and they're power set to the rest of the class but Bucky didn't hear a word of it as he continued to focus on the iridium man now known as Mettle.
"Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about the nature of these superpowers. As you can tell many of you have a diverse set of abilities that no two in this classroom seem to share, while others such as super strength and endurance tend to overlap. Let's start with Superman, Conner how much do you think the Man of Steel can benchpress?" Dr. Carr asked his student. The boy sat bolt up with a quizzical expression.
"I'm not sure sir, I imagine he can probably lift three or four tons at least." He said giving it his best guess.
"Well you would be right, but at the same time you're a little off. No one is quite sure how strong Superman is exactly. It's said that he can move planets at his peak but this is undocumented. So in a way your guess is as good as mine. What other powers does he have?" he asked.
"He's fast, he's bulletproof…he can do just about anything." Conner shrugged.
"How fast? Is he quicker than the Flash fast?" Snapper asked as Robin raised his hand and the professor pointed to him.
"He's close but the Flash is several magnitudes faster than him approaching the speed of light." Robin answered and cut off the teacher a moment later.
"Plus he has access to this extra dimensional plane called the Speed Force that grants him his powers." He added.
"Right again." The professor said.
"Yeah but there's also a theory that Superman's cape causes too much drag that makes him slower when compared to the Flash." Speed noted off to the side as Dr. Carr pointed back to him.
"Nicely done Speed, your saying that if Superman lost the cape he'd be as fast as the Flash. So then who would be faster Quicksilver or the Flash?" Dr. Carr asked.
"Quicksilver." He answered matter of factly.
"*cough* bullshit." Impulse countered as the professor raised an eyebrow while Speed shot him an angry look.
"Something you'd like to add?" the impartial professor suggested.
"Flash blows Quicksilver out of the water, it's a proven fact." He said as folded his arms and reclined in his seat.
"Yeah, only because he cheats." Speed muttered earning the rival speedster's ire.
"He didn't cheat!" Impulse countered sitting up with his hands on his desk.
"You have an unfair advantage to us!" Speed countered.
"So you admit it then." Impulse smiled.
"Admit what?" he said stirring his anger.
"That we're better than you." Wally smirked.
"You are not!" Tommy yelled standing up.
"Guys…" the teacher said trying to regain control of his class.
"You know it amazes me how neither of you can access the Speed Force, and yet you guys act like your hot stuff. I guess that means you don't reach the speed requirements to use it." Wally smirked.
"You better watch what your saying." Speed growled.
"Is that a fact?" Wally asked.
"Come on guys." Dr. Carr said growing tired.
"What are you going to do power walk me to death?" KF answered snidely.
"All right that's enough! The next outburst earns you guys detention, and I don't think either of you want that on the first day of school." the teacher said sternly folding his arms.
The two boys glared at each other and grumbled as they looked away.
"Another thing about speedsters is that in they're point of reference time stands still. So you can imagine how torturous a half hour's detention could be for a speedster." Dr. Carr added.
"Heh. Speed Force makes it more bearable for us." Impulse said under his breath.
"Bart." Snapper warned making him jump.
"If you can explain how it makes life easier for you. I'll let you both off the hook." He said as Wally sat up in his chair and answered as simply as he could.
"The Speed Force bends space/time around my sphere of influence allowing me live in real time when I'm not using my powers and keeps us anchored to the present, otherwise I'd be spirited off to another dimension or the Speed Force itself. Its also what keeps us sane as the relative timestream could move either too fast for us to process or at a snail's pace and drive us insane." He replied.
"All right good answer." Snapper smiled while students murmured amongst themselves as Speed sulked and muttered something under his breath.
"Now as I was saying powers come in many forms and permutations and some of these powers can influence a person's decisions in life, how you use them and what you use them for. Whether for good or evil, can anyone tell me why someone might use their powers for evil?" Snapper asked as he surveyed the class as Robin raised his hand.
"They're ego?" he asked.
"Why?" Carr asked as Superboy raised his.
"Maybe they felt slighted by their peers." He suggested
"Go on." the teacher said.
"Well it could be that they were bullied or otherwise felt inferior or were ridiculed when they were younger, or maybe people just didn't like them for some reason. Like they were creepy or weird or something." He added.
"Very good. Feelings of pride, selfishness and inadequacy can help fuel a supervillain mindset. What else?" he asked the class.
"Mental instability." Robin added.
"Well your part right." Snapper told him as Superboy raised his hand.
"Yes." He pointed.
"Certain criminal profiles suggest that some of these villains suffered some sort of trauma in their life." he added.
"Yes, very good Conner. A past trauma like the death of a loved one can help influence a person's mindset which can cause some people to lash out at the world. However this is a two-way street, its not so much that death, trauma or physical, mental or emotional abuse can make somebody evil, but what they do with it that can shape a person whether good or bad. A common dilemma among superheroes is that our loved ones are often in the crosshairs and what that might do to us if anything ever happened to them. It's not something any of us would like to think about and unfortunately some of us already had that experience as Spider-Man, Nightwing and many others have witnessed." Dr. Carr said pacing about.
Sometimes the villains are responsible for it and other times its due to circumstances beyond our control. In a perfect world superheroes wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing and nobody would die, unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world. So it's up to us to protect the masses from those that would slaughter and terrorize everyone in sight. I'll admit there are times when I wish guys like the Joker weren't as dangerous and more comical like he was in that show. You also must realize that not every villain is a raving lunatic out to destroy the city. As there are varying levels of competency when it comes to villains and the same is true for heroes." he said grabbing their attention.
"Guys like Cluemaster, Signalman, Major Disaster and the Rouges are largely incompetent and are easily foiled." He added to note a distinction.
"While people like Joker, Penguin, Two-Face and Lex Luthor are not, and then you have the scarily competent villains like Ra's Al Ghul, Apocalypse, Vandal Savage, Ultron and Zod. And then there are cosmic villains who are in a league all their own." he said as the buzzer sounded interrupted his lecture.
"All right that's all for now, we'll pick up on the rest of this tomorrow. Everyone have a good rest of the day." Dr. Carr stated as students left their seats while Bucky kept an eye on the mysterious skull faced student as he left the classroom.
A few students stayed to talk with the instructor a few minutes after class let out as Bucky stayed at his desk while Mettle chatted with Dr. Carr for a few minutes having been called up there as he was gathering his things. He couldn't make out what they were saying and trying to read the doctor's lips since Mettle didn't have any. After a few minutes of standing there Bucky's patience had worn thing as the scarlet hued mutant finally left the class while Bucky ignored any mentioning of Robin who was standing right behind him. The boy soldier narrowed his eyes and followed him out leaving Robin and Impulse in the dust. He was a tall, intimidating figure about 7' even with a broad chest and wearing a simple black shirt and light colored jeans as he lugged a duffle bag that was dwarfed by his massive frame. The metallic teen seemed to keep to himself as the much smaller, lighter Bucky walked about 10 feet behind him to divert any suspicion off himself.
The other students in the hallway talked amongst themselves and seemed to avoid looking at the metallic mutant and his ghastly features, no one was sure who he was, how he got his powers or what he was doing here. But it was enough to turn away most people, as they couldn't stand looking at his features. In truth Ken Mack was actually a shy, gentle figure that was self conscious about his monstrous appearance. Bucky kept even pace behind him intending to find out who this guy was and what his intentions were for being here as he raced down the hallway with an angry scowl. He continued following him for a few minutes as Mack made it across the center hallway as Bucky skidded to a halt to avoid running into a large item two people were carrying but never missed his target as he saw him enter the gym and raced after him once it was clear.
On the other side of those doors was a holographic training center as Ken set down his dufflebag as the simulation started up as Bucky poked his head in the door to keep tabs on Mack and soon found himself in a warzone settle with Mack standing in the midst of flaming debris, shattered buildings and a destroyed tank right next to him as Ken battled a battallion of gasmasked HYDRA shock troopers and started knocking them down left and right as they shot and raced towards him, the bullets deflecting off his metallic shell as he stood unaffected and sent troopers flying every which way but unfortunately for Bucky the images triggered his post traumatic flashbacks to the actual war as he saw Mettle in a monstrous light, his scarlet hued face blacked out with razor sharp teeth and pale white eyes as he tore through the troops both figuratively and literally as he saw him a man in half at the waist and grab another one by his head as the mental stress stared to take over and Bucky could hardly breath as he reached for his piece, all the while a normal training session continued with Mettle unaware of the boy's presence and suddenly got worse as he saw the monster battle Captain America as the Super Solider bravely stood his ground but was knocked back as was his shield as Bucky stood helpless as he watched him lay strewn across the battlefield as the monster stood over him grabbing the captain by his tunic and ready to rend him apart as he grabbed the Super Solider's scalp and right arm. Fear and terror was immediately replaced with rage and anguish as Bucky grabbed his sidearm and opened fire hitting Mack in the face and chest as Bucky stood his ground with murder in his eyes as he unloaded his clip on the metal titan as a battle lust overtook the boy soldier and immedately charged in drawing the knives from his belt and went on the attack using his acrobatic talent tumbling and flipping every which way stabbing him at all points along his chest, stomach and back trying to get a vital hit in and kill the beast before it could take Cap or him while Mettle had no clue who was attacking him or if this was part of the simulation.
The boy solider tumbled away from him while he still had the element of surprise and unloaded a chain gun on the monster blowing him back as the bullets ate away at his clothes and was starting to take damage as Bucky continued his murderous assault still trapped in his horrific flashbacks of men getting slaughtered and ripped apart by otherworldly creatures brought forth by HYDRA and the Third Reich there were voices calling for him to stop distant phantoms he could barely hear as Captain America's shield sailed in and took the weapon from his hands, the simulation had ended and Bucky was brought back to reality as he looked up and saw his mentor alive and in one piece but looking at him sternly he couldn't understand what had happened as Cap pointed across from him and saw Mettle sat in a heap his shirt in tatters and barely breathing as Iron Man and the other heroes stood over him and Mettle while Bucky stared back at them like a deer in the headlights.
Author's Note: All right so what did you think of that?
Please review,
The Green Gallant